Timing Metro travel this weekend

By
Robert Thomson

The clocks fall back an hour at 2 a.m. Sunday as Daylight Saving Time ends. But for Metrorail riders, that's the easy part of the clock-watching this weekend. Metro turns back its clocks along with everyone else. All the homeward-bound partiers need to remember is that Metrorail will continue operating till 3 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

The trickier part of weekend transit planning will be tracking the train schedules late Friday and early Saturday, as Metro prepares to shut down segments of the Orange and Blue lines for a big weekend maintenance project.

Here are the very precise details from Metro on the last trains this weekend.

Orange Line
Friday, Nov. 5, the last Orange Line train in the direction of New Carrollton will depart Vienna at 8:59 p.m., Stadium-Armory at 9:42 p.m., Minnesota Ave at 9:46 p.m., Deanwood at 9:47 p.m., Cheverly at 9:50 p.m., Landover at 9:53 p.m. It will arrive at New Carrollton at 9:56 p.m.

The last Orange Line train in the direction of Vienna will depart New Carrollton at 9:33 p.m., Landover at 9:36 p.m., Cheverly at 9:39 p.m., Deanwood at 9:42 p.m., Minnesota Ave at 9:43 p.m., Stadium-Armory at 9:47 p.m. It will arrive at Vienna at 10:30 p.m.

The last inbound Orange Line from Stadium-Armory to Vienna will leave Stadium-Armory at 2:49 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, and Sunday, Nov. 7. On Sunday night, it will leave at 11:49 p.m.

Blue Line
The last Blue Line train toward Largo Town Center will depart Franconia-Springfield at 8:47 p.m., Stadium-Armory at 9:36 p.m., Benning Road at 9:39 p.m., Capitol Heights at 9:43 p.m., Addison Road-Seat Pleasant at 9:45 p.m., Morgan Boulevard at 9:48 p.m. It will arrive at Largo Town Center at 9:51 p.m.

The last Blue Line train in the direction of the Franconia-Springfield will depart Largo Town Center at 9:42 p.m., Morgan Boulevard at 9:45 p.m., Addison Road-Seat Pleasant at 9:48 p.m., Capitol Heights at 9:50 p.m., Benning Road at 9:54 p.m., Stadium-Armory at 9:57 p.m. It will arrive at Franconia-Springfield at 10:46 p.m.

For Blue Line riders in the direction of Franconia-Springfield to make their final connections at Stadium-Armory, the last Blue Line train will depart Largo Town Center at about 2:04 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, and Sunday, Nov. 7. On Sunday night, it will leave at 11:04.

The last inbound Blue Line to Franconia-Springfield will leave Stadium-Armory at about 2:50 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, and Sunday, Nov. 7. On Sunday night, it will leave at 11:50 p.m.

Pretty important to add the timing of the Blue and Orange Line trains. Once again Blue Line riders are getting screwed with weekend track work. We continue to pay the highest fares yet receive the worst service.

========

During the day on Nov. 6 and 7, all Orange Line trains will operate approximately every 12 to 15 minutes. After 9:30 p.m., on Nov. 5, 6 and 7, all Orange Line trains will operate approximately every 20 minutes. After 10 p.m. on Nov. 5, and all day on Nov. 6 and 7, all Blue Line trains will operate approximately every 30 minutes between Franconia-Springfield and Stadium-Armory and between the Largo Town Center and Benning Road Metrorail stations. Blue Line trains will operate every 30 minutes between these locations because additional track maintenance will require Blue and Yellow Line trains to share one track between the Braddock Road and Pentagon City Metrorail stations on Nov. 6 and 7.

perhaps getjiggly1's unintentional irony is that yes, despite the fact that the city doesn't close on weekends and car-less washingtonians depend on the metro, they always schedule such debilitating track maintenance that using the metro on the weekend is unbearable to the point that it might as well not be open. metro has lost all my weekend fares because i simply don't want to waste 2 hours of my weekend waiting for trains.

Agreed, even when there is no track work taking Metro to go anywhere on weekends can take forever, especially if you change lines.

But is it just me or has Metro gotten a little bit better on weekends? I seem to recall when I would go out 7 or 8 years ago that waits of 30 minutes on weekend nights were common. Now 20 minutes is usually the longest wait I get.

And 7-8 years ago they didn't have the signs posting the next train outside the turnstiles. So you'd pay your fare and then get a rude surprise when you got to the platform at see how long your wait would be. I think I've paid Metro about $15 for trains I gave up on over the years. Most recently the Stewart/Colbert rally.

A total nightmare for me Friday night. It would've been nice to know that things were shutting down prior to the 10 PM scheduled work, I would've made alternate plans. Got to Metro Center at 9:40 Friday night, train to the 'Stadium' came one after the other and I caught the 9:45...got to Eastern Market shortly after 10 PM and then we literally waited there for 45 mins. Made it to Stadium Armory after 11 to swtich after to the bus to Benning Road, didn't leave that station until afte 1130, finally made it to Addison Road 10 minutes to 12 midnight. Ridiculous Metro, please do better.

We encourage users to analyze, comment on and even challenge washingtonpost.com's articles, blogs, reviews and multimedia features.

User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions.